Summary

With the World Championship in the book, Ixalan Standard is taking shape. Ramunap Red, Temur Energy, and U/B Control all seem to be viable options after their impressive performances in the hands of Magic’s premier players. Even though the World Championship metagame was not diverse, this shouldn’t necessarily be true going forward due to the constraints a 24 player tournament puts on its metagame. The deck we’re featuring today is Jund Monsters, which aims to play powerful planeswalkers and creatures to out-value the opponent.

One key part of this deck is its planeswalker package, which can be hard to deal with for opponents and can provide card advantage into the mid and late game. Chandra, Torch of Defiance draws an additional card each turn, while providing mana, a semi-repeatable removal spell, and a powerful threatening ultimate. At 4 mana, it’s the sweet spot for this type of card and presents an immediate threat to the opponent. Vraska, Relic Seeker is a powerful 6 mana token-maker that also represents a kill spell and a nearly unbeatable ultimate, while Nissa, Vital Force is a powerful source of consistent beatdowns and a quick ultimate that can provide insurmountable card advantage.

Glorybringer has proven itself to be a consistently threatening 5 mana creature that ends games quickly and limits the opponent’s board development. Noxious Gearhulk is similarly powerful, offering a kill spell on a large, menacing creature. Carnage Tyrant is a new and exciting card from Ixalan that is nearly impossible to kill and poses a real threat to any deck trying to compete on the same axis as this deck.

In order to make it to the mid and late game where the aforementioned planeswalkers and creatures can do their work, this deck bridges the gap in a couple of ways. Firstly, Channeler Initiate is a powerful 2 mana ramp spell that doesn’t sit around doing nothing once this deck turns the proverbial corner. Instead, it offers a sizable body that can attack the opponent. This deck also plays a number of early removal spells including Fatal Push, Abrade, and Doomfall, the latter of which provides a discard spell when needed.